Weddingbee Blog

Okay, before I get started on this tutorial, I just have to get something out of my system:

You’re gonna love my nuts!!!

Anyone? Anyone? I had this commercial from the sham-wow guy running through my head the entire time I was writing the post. It makes me laugh every time. I’ll never understand why he says that, but I love it.

Annnyways, let’s get started.

You will need:

• Scrapbooking paper. Thinner paper is easier to use, trust me on this. None of that cardstock stuff. That will make your life miserable.
• A paper cutter (I have this one from Provo Craft, only about $7.00 at Michaels!)
• A 1/16? hole punch. You could probably use a push-pin or something if you wanted to, but this worked pretty well for us
• Small brads
• One big, strong, hunky male. (Or some seriously toned arm muscles.)

Step One: Pick out your paper and get to cutting! (Disclaimer: I totally took pictures of this part of the process, but my computer ate them. Really. They are nowhere to be found.) All you have to do is cut the paper into strips that are 4″ long, and 1/4″ wide. There are 15 strips per ball. I found that from a 12×12 piece of scrapbook paper, I could make about 4 and a half balls.

Step Two: Smile sweetly at your fiance, promise him all sorts of special favors if he will help you out.

Strong, hunky male? Check! Notice that innocent little smile? He has no idea what’s coming.

Step Three: Find something entertaining on t.v. and settle in! Our show of choice?

Oh, Bones, how we love you!!!

Step Four: Hand your hunky male the hole punch, give him a minute to obsess over how tiny the holes it makes are. Trust me on this one, he’ll be amazed. It’s a guy thing. Once he’s finished, hand him a stack of strips and instruct him to punch a hole in either side, as close to the edge as possible (The original tutorial says to do it 1/8″ away from the edge, but we did not have the patience to measure it. Just eyeball it.)

Step Five: Try not to laugh at him as he makes ridiculous faces when he realizes how freaking difficult it is to punch a tiny hole through 15 sheets of paper. (I didn’t get any photos of this step, under severe death threats from Mr. Cardigan.)

Step Six: Insert tiny brads on both sides of the paper. Once you’ve gotten to this point, they should look something like this:

Now, if you’re like me and doing this way ahead of time, this is where you jump ahead to step 8. I just threw them into a Ziploc baggie like this, and there they’ll sit until we’re ready to unfold them. BUT, if you’re ready to unfold them now, proceed to step seven!

Step Seven: Starting with the strip of paper on the bottom, twist each strip of paper out to unfold the little ball. Don’t worry if it looks ridiculous at first. It will. Once you get them all folded out it looks much better.

One strip unfolded

A couple more…

Almost there!

And, voila! Cute little balls!

And finally, Step Eight: Fall back into the couch and revel in the glory of a job well done. Oh, and make sure that your strong male counterpart takes an Advil. His arm’s gonna be sore in the morning.

Step Nine: Enjoy your cute little balls!!! (Remember? I’m 12.)

Note: The original tutorial that I used can be found here, if you need any extra help!

Any suggestions for what I could do with these? If I do a garland, where should I put it?